Fare
by Glowing Blue
Summary: A friendship traced through the food they eat — or don't eat. One-Shot.


**A/N: ****HAPPY HAPPY _HAPPY_ BIRTHDAY TO LOVELY ADOBO-CHAN!** **:D **

Boy, did this get looooong. I agonized over finishing it for the past week and a half, and _still_ only just completed it about an hour ago. And, like I mentioned, this was meant to be for tumblr, except it was getting _so_ long that formatting everything was becoming such a nuisance – as was proofreading it -.- And so it ended up here!

The prompt is food because, well, you love food, haha. It was actually Alex's idea, back when we were _both_ trying to figure out what to give you as a present, and luckily it was exactly what my muse needed :) I hope you like it, my gorgeous wifey~

Oh, and there's _minor_ spoilers in here for anyone who hasn't read the chapters with Isshin's backstory, in the very last scene.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.**

* * *

When she turned down a second serving of their meal, he knew something significant must have happened.

"I'm just not hungry," she huffed when he asked, titling her head off to the side so he wouldn't notice her embarrassment. There was no overlooking the flash of uncertainty through her eyes, though, as if she worried about how he might react.

He raised an inquisitive brow, pointing out, "You've never eaten less than two servings of any meal we've shared together."

She breathed out sharply, irritated by his astute memory. "That doesn't mean I _have_ to stuff my face every time."

"You've never once considered it 'stuffing your face,'" he rebutted, now downright uneasy about the whole matter. Where had this sudden change sprouted from, and why did she seem so embarrassed about cluing him in? "Is it because you're short on money?" he ventured a guess. "I only came because you said you would treat, the division budget being so horrendous this month and all, but don't force yourself–"

"It's not about money," she hissed through her teeth, narrowing her eyes on his figure sitting across the table. She was clearly annoyed, as she always was when he implied that their friendship was built upon a brittle foundation and lasted simply because of cheap tokens. There was an understanding between them that he wouldn't have joined her had she not badgered him so relentlessly, and that he had accompanied her for lunch only because she'd offered to foot the bill, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"I'm going on a diet," she finally declared.

"A diet?" he deadpanned, though there was actual shock hidden beneath his cool facade. "You don't need to diet."

"_Yes_, I _do_." She clucked her tongue impatiently. "It's a girl thing, Toushiro. You wouldn't understand."

He idly reached for the last of the yakiniku grilling on their table. "Explain it to me, then."

"It's just…" She twirled her bangs around one finger, breathing out slowly in a moment of hesitation. "…There's this boy."

His chopsticks froze in mid-air. He flitted his gaze to her face in one, swift motion, only to find that a dusting of red had settled across her nose. The only time he had ever seen her look so insecure was when her pride was on the line, and his mind jumped to the only logical explanation.

"Is he bullying you?" he asked sternly, the corners of his mouth turning down into a deep frown. "Is he telling you ridiculous things, like you need to eat less or–"

_"No!"_ she interjected, her eyes trailing up into a half-roll at his thoughts. "I-I…Well, I _like_ him."

He stared. "You like a boy." It came out as half a question and half a shocked statement, as if he needed to bluntly summarize what he'd just heard for it to make even an ounce of sense in his head. "And why does that require dieting?"

"Well, Pinta and the guys know him – just from around the classroom, you know? They heard that the last girl he used to like was really something: pretty, tall, and super thin. I need to get thinner if I want him to look at me."

The blush mildly spread to her cheeks, and he couldn't stop himself from staring. It had never occurred to him that the physical changes in her body would lead to emotional ones as well, but now he was witnessing it before his very eyes. He was _much_ too old to be having this silly talk about crushes with a middle schooler, except his mind had already become a whirlwind of different thoughts and reactions.

One finally managed to works its way out of his mouth: "Shouldn't you want him to like you for _you?_ Changing yourself like this to impress him won't solve anything."

"It's not like I'm changing my _personality_," she refuted impatiently. "I'm just changing how I look a little. This could be good for me. I eat too much, anyway."

"But you love food," he argued, but it seemed futile.

She shook her head, softly claiming, "I'm willing to make the sacrifice. After all, when you like someone, you want to try hard for them."

He had nothing to say against her profound words, and if he was honest with himself, he admired them too much to even try. Instead, he polished off the last of their meat as she rummaged through her wallet to pay for their food.

**.. ღ ..**

When she sullenly accepted seconds of her soup, he realized something had changed.

"You said you were dieting," he said aloud. Granted, that had been over two months ago, but he knew weight loss was a long and vigorous process.

She sighed heavily. "Oh, I still am. I'm just not cutting back as much anymore."

"Any reason?" he asked cautiously, noticing how exhausted she looked compared to his last visit. She didn't look good; there were bags under her eyes and a pale whiteness to her skin, all of which added to the unhealthy tinge in her appearance.

She paused with her spoon dipped in her broth, contemplation passing over her features as she hesitated much like the last time she'd told him important news. "…I passed out."

_"Passed out–"_ He almost choked on his own soup from the surprise, and Karin grimaced in return.

"I passed out at practice last week because I hadn't eaten all day. The school nurse said it was malnutrition – that I was eating too little and exercising too much." She swirled her soup in its bowl, brooding as she stared down at it. "Coach put me on probation until I get my shit together."

"You can't play football," he stated incredulously. "That's two things you love that you've lost now. Kurosaki, don't you think you're taking this too far?"

Her answering smile was dejected. "I do it all for the guy I like, so it's no big deal."

"But there's a _limit_," he tried to argue, but she shook her head again, refusing to bend on this matter, and he withdrew unwillingly. He was sure her close friends and worried family must have tried to talk sense into her, and if even they had failed, he didn't think there was anything _he_ could say to remedy the situation; they weren't close enough for that, at least from his point of view.

She was a friend, however, as reluctant as the relationship might have been at the beginning, so he couldn't help his worry as he observed her hollowed features once again.

Winter had begun since his last visit and there was a nip in the air, but while the other patrons of the restaurant were happily slurping their soup and accepting its warmth, Kurosaki picked at her food in slight disgust. It was obvious that she didn't want the steaming meal, that she had reluctantly ordered it simply to avoid collapsing again, though he knew she was normally the type to practically_swoon_ at something so delicious. She wasn't herself anymore, and he wondered just what kind of boy could be worth this torture.

"Just make sure you eat balanced meals everyday," he tacked on in the end. "It's possible to be skinny _and_ healthy, you know, as long as you're both staying active and supplying your body with the proper nutrients. Be sensible about this."

"Yes, _taichou_," she replied jokingly, her grin playful rather than resigned for the first time since his visit. His relief at seeing it almost made his own lips twitch, but he managed to suppress the urge and gruffly returned to his own food.

They split the bill this time.

**.. ღ ..**

When she began shoveling spoonfuls of six different cakes into her mouth, he knew something was _wrong_.

It was strange enough that she'd taken him to a tea shop of all places, but the Kurosaki he had come to know valued hard work above anything else; she would never destroy all of her sacrifices up until now, especially after months of cutting back on her favorite foods.

It had been three months since his past visit and she already looked different, much more like the girl she once was; her cheeks had rounded out once again, almost back to their healthy, pink color, and her hands didn't shake from weakness anymore as she handled cutlery. He'd assumed she had properly heeded the nurse's words and followed his advice, but watching her now, it was more likely that she'd been overcompensating for something with food.

"Is everything all right?" he asked carefully.

She paused her frenzy, eyes widening as she looked up at him, and asked slowly, "Wh-Why do you think something's wrong?"

"This is the most I've seen you eat for five months," he pointed out. "Do you expect me to believe nothing has changed?"

She set down her fork, mouth opening and closing a few times before her shoulders dropped. Her voice was soft. "He got a girlfriend."

Masking his surprise and the jolt in his chest, he approached the situation delicately. "The boy you liked?"

"A-A month ago," she continued shakily, her eyes boring down into her cakes, though he had a feeling she didn't actually see them. "He started going out with a girl from his class a month ago. I-I didn't even get to confess yet." She looked back up at him, and he started at the glisten in her eyes. "All that work, Toushiro, and I didn't even get my chance."

Her lip quivered for one moment of weakness. She shed no actual tears, but the look in her eyes was all he needed to see to realize that she had fallen apart on the inside.

She was so passionate in her love. It had been nothing but a silly, middle school crush, and yet she took it as hard as losing that one ray of light in a dark world. It was as if, to her, the intensity and the devotion made it all the more real, and he vaguely mused that the man she would one day marry would be incomparably lucky to receive all her passion.

But he was helpless when faced with her distress. Comfort had never been his area of expertise; he'd been unsure of what to say to even his own fukutaichou all those years ago, when she'd been silently grieving the loss of her childhood companion. Instead, he'd let her off the hook each time she arrived to the office late, handling her half of the paperwork without complaint when she passed out on the office couch. It was all he'd known to do.**  
**

_So what can I do for Kurosaki?_ he wondered.

He eyed the plates of cakes spread out before her. As he'd thought, she had been eating to overcompensate for the love she had lost and to fill the void it had left behind. It was actually doing wonders for her, returning her the strength she had lost from refusing food for too long. If this was how she chose to grieve, then he wanted to help in any way he could.

She blinked in uncertainty when he slid his own cake across the table, pushing it towards her.

"Eat up," he ordered, coolly reaching for his steaming cup of tea. "I'll pay this time."

"But you're a stingy bastard," she replied incredulously, her voice cracking at the end.

"You need this," was his simple answer, and it was all she had to hear to dig into the dessert he had offered her, hiding the overwhelming emotion on her face.

He paid their costly bill without a word, all the while thinking of how beautiful she was in her heartbreak.

**.. ღ ..**

When she started humming while drumming the same tune on the lid of her coffee cup, he noticed the sparkle had returned to her eyes.

It had been almost a year since their last outing to lunch together, when she'd fallen apart in front of his eyes and he'd spent many sleepless nights _trying_, and failing miserably, to forget the heartbreak on her face for even a moment. The few trips he'd made to her realm since had been brief, _maybe_ allowing enough time for only a quick football game and certainly not a whole meal together. In those rare matches, he'd noticed that she seemed to be moving on from her misery, that each time he heard her laugh it sounded more and more true, but he'd never had time to ask for confirmation from the high schooler herself.

Now, they finally sat in a coffee shop; an entire morning of fighting Hollows had left him exhausted and in dire need of caffeine, and she'd taken one look at the bags under his eyes before declaring that she knew the best place for coffee in town and promptly dragging him there by the wrist. She was brash with her actions, he had learned after four years of friendship, but it was only recently that he'd realized she was also always considerate.

Trying to return even a fraction of that consideration, he was all ears – though he pretended not to be – as he asked, "Something good happened to you?"

She beamed in reply. "So you noticed, huh? Well, as a matter of fact, something _did_." She'd stopped strumming her cup already, settling for drawing circles around the rim of the lid instead. "The guy I liked broke up with his girlfriend."

She might have expected him to gape in shock. Even _he_ was prepared for an influx of astonishment, or maybe even empathy after following her story for so long. Instead, irritation pricked at him like falling pine needles. After experiencing all that heart ache, she was _still_ pining after that boy?

"And this is a cause for celebration?" he asked dryly. "You can finally confess?"

"Oh, I already did." She grinned when he lurched in his seat, eyes uncharacteristically wide while hesitating to ask the question. Elbow on the table, she rested her cheek against her fist to lean forward and announce, "I was rejected."

Trying to calm his thudding heart, he appraised her carefully. "You're not upset, though," he observed.

"Nope!" Her grin molded into a gentle smile as she linked her arms in front of her and stretched. Her eyes were just as soft, and he noted in wonder that she'd matured splendidly through the experience. "I think I just needed that closure, you know? I realized something after he turned me down: I actually came to terms with him having a girlfriend a _long_ time ago. It was just the fact that I never got my chance, even after working so hard, that was eating away at me."

He took that in with a moment of contemplative silence. "So…what now?"

"Now?" She chuckled with good nature. "Now I find a new love."

It was hard not to smile back when the one she directed at him was so bright and brimming with her youth, and he was sure it must have looked as proud as he felt. She might have worked her body a little too hard in a moment of weakness, but she had a _very_ healthy control over her emotions.

She sank back into her seat, playfully heaving a deep sigh. "But man, it's gonna be _hard_ to find someone as good as him, definitely."

"He couldn't have been all that great," Toushiro grumbled in return, feeling bitter towards a boy he'd never even met. He didn't forgive people who hurt his friends very easily.

"No, he really was." She waved an airy hand. "He's pretty smart, almost freakishly nice, and damn good at football, too. I only settle for the best, you know."

Toushiro slammed a hand against the tabletop as he stood up. "I'm done with my coffee," he muttered, crushing the cup in his hand. "I'll go pay."

"_You're_ paying? _Again?_" she called after him, aghast. She didn't say anything about his abrupt change of subject, or didn't notice.

"Of course," he snapped back. "What kind of a man would I be if I made you pay every time?"

"Hmmm," he overheard her mumbling to herself. "I guess you _are_ a man, aren't you?"

His ears definitely turned pink from embarrassment as he tossed his trash into a bin and made a beeline for the front counter. Of course he was a man! Was she only _just_ noticing?

_Too busy thinking about her perfect crush, I suppose._

The darkness of his tone surprised even him. He hadn't liked the boy very much to begin with, even if they'd never officially met. No matter how much she praised him, if he was someone his friend needed to starve herself for, he didn't think very highly of him.

Recently, however, he'd begun to realize that he just genuinely disliked hearing Kurosaki talk about him. He was beginning to lose his patience over her hero-worship, though he hadn't given it much thought when she'd first developed feelings. With this closure, hopefully she would spare him from having to listen as she swooned over teenage boys.

He was still grumbling to himself as he approached the cashier. "I'd like to pay for our coffee," he informed the woman behind the counter. "Mine, and hers."

He pointed to their table with a jab of his thumb, directing the employee's gaze to Karin, who was idly sipping the last of her drink as she awaited his return.

"Oh, _my!"_ the woman gushed, giddily calculating his fee. "Treating your pretty lady over there, are you? What a nice boyfriend you are!"

He didn't bother correcting her as he dolled out the payment.

**.. ღ ..**

When she gazed longingly at the poster hanging on the far wall of the restaurant, he couldn't help but be intrigued.

This time, he didn't have to ask before she offered him an explanation.

"The owner of the restaurant started a new promotion last week," she told him, pointing to the advertisement for the event she'd been staring at. "Whoever can eat the most gyoza in five minutes wins a pair of tickets to see the baseball match in the stadium downtown next week. It's one of the last games of the season."

"And you would like to try?" he guessed.

She sighed heavily. "I already did, but I couldn't get them. See, the owner already set the record, so if anybody wants to win, they have to beat his number." She pointed him out, a burly man who certainly looked like he could pack away a hearty meal. "He ate twenty-eight."

Toushiro's eyes widened. "That...is certainly a lot."

"The gyoza here are smaller than usual, which is why it's easier to eat more, but they're full of so much stuffing that eating too much can make anyone sick. It's impossible." Her bottom lip jutted out as she laid her head on the table in defeat.

Toushiro took one look at her mournful expression before he set his jaw and marched purposefully to the owner. This was important to her, and as such, it was important to him, too.

He'd realized that not too long ago, that her needs mattered more to him than he could care to explain. Maybe it had come from watching her deal with her first heartbreak and feeling so helpless over how to help her, or maybe it had come from feeling so accomplished when he managed to lift her spirits again with his comfort, like he'd never managed with anyone else.

Toushiro had no delusions. Whatever it was, it fueled his urge to keep her happy, and he'd long since accepted what that meant.

"I'd like to take on the gyoza challenge," he declared to the owner, who gave him an expectant once-over.

"Sure thing, kid," he chuckled. "Let me get everything ready for you."

Karin lifted up her head and stared at him. "Toushiro, are you crazy? You'll definitely get sick. I just told you it was impossible!"

"I'll decide that for myself," he replied icily. Seeing the worry she directed at him, he was quick to assure her, "Don't worry, Kurosaki. I can actually eat a lot for someone my..."

He trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence, but she was more than happy to finish it for him.

_"Size?"_ she snorted.

He huffed and glared at her heatedly. "Shut up."

_I didn't even know he liked baseball this much,_ she thought in wonder as he stalked off.

_..._

"Holy shit, this kid's a _machine_!" a random customer exclaimed four minutes into Toushiro's challenge. "He's got a black hole for a stomach!"

Karin just watched in awe as the taichou scarfed down his food with breakneck speed, chewing hastily and thickly swallowing each time. He ate in a very efficient manner, never wasting his time or movements while maneuvering the chopsticks. He _was_, however, beginning to look slightly green around the edges now that the end was in sight, but persevered through his nausea.

"How many is that?" someone asked in awe, which began a unanimous countdown.

"Twent-six...twenty-seven...twenty-_eight_..."

When he hit twenty-nine, the crowd burst out into cheers and applause, while Toushiro dropped his chopsticks, reclined back in his seat, screwed his eyes shut, and tried to suppress a pained groan.

"Here ya go, kid," the owner grumbled, unwillingly tossing him an envelope with his prize inside. He stalked into the kitchen after, a sour glint in his eyes.

"You all right, Toushiro?" Karin asked quietly, watching him with worry. The other patrons were busy chattering amongst themselves excitedly, which gave her time to check up on her ill-looking friend.

He wordlessly handed her the envelope, clapping his hands over his stomach after. The chair screeched as he pushed it back, and it was with difficulty that he managed to right himself. "The fee for our lunch has been waived now, right?" he muttered. "Then I'm going back to Inoue's apartment to lie down."

"Wait, your tickets!" she cried, but he shook his head.

"Take them," was all he managed to say.

Karin looked down at the tickets as he wobbled away, biting her lip unsurely. "I don't know, Toushiro. It doesn't feel right for me to take these, not when you did all the work."

_"Take. Them,"_ he hissed through his teeth, not even looking back as he finally made it to the door. His cheeks had flushed something horrid. "Otherwise, this would have no purpose. Who the hell do you think I did this for, anyway?"

"For _me?_" she replied in disbelief. "All of it?"

He'd done something so uncharacteristic and out of his comfort zone just for her? Was it possibly because he could tell how badly she wanted the tickets? Had the disappointment and the longing in her words been too strong?

Even so, never in a million years had she ever thought she would see Toushiro do something so blatantly uncool – and by _choice_. He was a sight to behold right now, barely able to stand straight without turning green, as he would have known would happen should he take on the challenge. This horrendous state was hardly fitting for a taichou of the Gotei Thirteen, a title he valued so highly, yet he had willingly cast it aside for her wish. It was all very touching.

She was strangely shy as she called after him. "Why do _all_ this just for _me_, Toushiro?"

He paused halfway out the door. With his back facing her, she had no way to see the uncertainty that passed over his features, replaced with determination an instant after. She only noted the silence, which stretched on for so long that she almost believed he wouldn't answer at all.

But he was out of the shop with words that left her dumbstruck, coolly waving his hand as she gaped after him.

"When you like someone, you want to try hard for them, right?"

**.. ღ ..**

When he passed her a tub of popcorn and their fingers accidentally brushed, she felt electricity spark against her skin.

It had always been there, she realized in a daze. It was only now that she was starting to notice it, only now that it was so strong she couldn't ignore it as she had been.

"I-I'm surprised you agreed to come," she made conversation as he took his seat beside hers. Down on the field below, a batter struck out for the third time, and a majority of the crowd groaned collectively.

"I'm surprised you _asked_ me to come," he retorted. "I assumed you would bring that boy from Urahara's shop – the one who loves baseball."

Jinta _had_, in fact, thrown a fit when he'd learned she _wouldn't_ be taking him, but he didn't need to know that. "It just seemed fair, since you _did_ win them and all."

His answering eye-roll was dry. "You were free to take anyone you wanted, Kurosaki. I _told_ you I won those for you."

She bit her bottom lip. "About that..." There was a _crack_ as the next batter cleanly hit the ball across the field, and the arena basically _exploded_ into cheers. Ignoring both the game and the ear-splitting commotion, she turned to Toushiro and yelled over the noise, "What did you mean when you said you were trying hard for the person you like!"

This time, his answer was astonishment so strong that it would have been funny had she not been so serious. "You think _now_ is the best time to have this conversation?"

He was right, of course. They'd spent almost the entire train ride here in silence, because she'd spent that time trying to steel herself to ask the question that had been nagging at her all week. But here, where the energy from the crowd was pumping her up, she had finally found her courage.

"Why not?" she retorted just as the next batter came up to play. "I know you're the quiet type, but you also never hide what you have to say. Just tell me the truth, Toushiro."

"The _truth_?" he repeated, his eyes dark. "The truth, Karin, is that I meant it just how _you_ meant it."

The player hit a home run just then, and the crowd went wild in their excitement as the two intensely gazed into each other's eyes.

Toushiro noticed the pink of her cheeks, but he didn't take back his words. He had no delusions; he knew exactly what it was he was feeling, and he'd prepared himself for this conversation when he'd said those words at the restaurant.

It was Karin who was at a loss. She would admit that she'd dreamed of him saying those words to her more than just once – she was a teenage girl, after all, and he was an _extremely_ attractive friend – but never had she deluded herself into thinking it would actually come _true_. She was _not_ prepared for this.

Toushiro sighed when her panic set in. He'd had a feeling this would happen.

"It's all right, Kurosaki," he consoled her, finally tearing his eyes away. "I just felt that you deserved the truth, but it would be best if we just forget this ever happened."

That seemed to get her started again. _"What?"_ she asked incredulously.

"I'm offering you a way out of this, Kurosaki," he answered, finally focusing his attention on the game, though he didn't actually see anything. "Nothing has to change."

"Again, _what_?" she repeated.

Act like he had never confessed to her? She could never be that cruel.

This was Toushiro, the boy who'd put up with her crazy crush even when he didn't have to, who'd consoled her in her moment of weakness until she could honestly say she was good as new, who'd put _her_ needs above his own – and not just when he'd won her these tickets she'd wanted so badly, but on _multiple_ occasions.

She already loved him. He was one of her dearest friends, the one who'd stuck with her the longest, even when she hadn't been the nicest person to be around. He was also one of her most trusted confidants, for she'd told him things she'd been too ashamed to tell even _Yuzu_.

He just didn't understand what was going through her head right now, that she was seriously considering him in her mind and realizing that this could be something really, _really great._

And as she peeked at him from the corners of her eyes and noticed that he refused to look her way, it hit her that–

_I've hurt him._

Of course she had, after reacting so horribly to his confession! He'd put himself out there and she'd reacted with nothing more than a single word of confusion, too eager to recede into her thoughts. He'd taken her silence to mean rejection.

That understanding hurt _her. _She knew what rejection was like, how much it hurt. The apology that was at the tip of her tongue just didn't feel right anymore, didn't feel like enough._  
_

_But w-what can I do for him?_ she asked herself, anxiously wringing her hands. The inning was already over, that was how long she'd taken, and the players were retreating from the field for their break.

"Toushiro?" she called out to him guiltily.

He stubbornly refused to look her way, but even so, couldn't find it in him to completely ignore the girl he liked. "Hn?"

The entire arena gasped collectively when the cameras circulating the stadium turned towards the crowd, just in time to film a girl hurl herself out of her seat and passionately kiss her white-haired companion.

**.. ღ ..**

"I'm sorry Oyaji made you have dinner with us," Karin apologized hastily, cringing as they stepped out onto the front porch of her home.

"_I'm_ sorry that he was watching that baseball game on TV," Toushiro mumbled in response, glaring at the ground.

As anyone would have suspected, Isshin hadn't taken the shock well at flipping on the television just in time to watch his teenage daughter plant a kiss on a boy in front of hundreds of people – even _if_ said boy was his old third seat that he'd always adored like his own son. He'd called her up and demanded that Karin bring him around for dinner with the family that night, a dangerous threat laced into his cheerful tone, and the meal had ended exactly as she'd foreseen it would: as a traumatizing memory she was _sure_ she would bring up in therapy in a few years.

It had been worse for Toushiro.

"You okay after that?" she asked carefully. There was a chill in the air that had her folding her arms and hopping from foot to foot to keep warm, but even so, she refused to go back inside without a proper goodbye.

"I've gotten used to taichou's antics since long ago," he sighed, dismissing any reason for her to worry.

"I'm just glad that he seemed to approve," she mumbled, scuffing the ground with her toe. "You know, since we just started..."

He raised an eyebrow when she trailed off, embarrassed. "Yes, since we just started, I'm relieved he didn't think much of the sight we must have made."

Her entire face flushed bright pink at the memory. "S-Sorry! Spur of the moment."

"I wasn't accusing you of anything," he assured her. What boy _wouldn't_ like to be kissed by the girl he had confessed to? Toushiro was far from upset with her.

"W-Well, it _is_ weird to think about, though," she mused. "The next time you're in town and we go out to lunch together, it won't be as friends anymore."

"Romance doesn't mark the end of friendship," he answered simply. "I hope that when I come to your door next time and ask you for a date, you won't feel uneasy."

"Only if you don't bring me flowers!" she declared, because it was exactly what she knew he would do.

_"Oh."_ He frowned in confusion. "Then, what _should_ I bring you?"

She thought it over before deciding, "Chocolates. The good ones. I want a big box of good, expensive chocolates with caramel inside."

He chuckled. "You sure do love food, don't you?"

"I sure do," she agreed with a smirk. "But don't worry, Toushiro. It goes, you, then football, _then_ food. Those last two might possibly get switched depending on when it's football season and when I'm PMSing, but you're always at the top of the priorities list. As long as you bring me those chocolates, of course."

"Of course," he echoed, amused. His voice was husky as it drifted into the night. "Then, I suppose this is goodbye for now, Karin."

He leaned in to brush his lips against her cheek, and before she could so much as gasp, he was gone with the promise to soon return for their first proper date.

* * *

**A/N:** Once again, a _very_ happy birthday to you! I hope it's wonderful! _And_ I hope this was to your liking ^_^

Now I'm off to bed because it's late and I'm exhausted and I have to get up early. We'll talk when I'm awake, 'kay? :)


End file.
